Judaica Librarianship

Vol. 23 Editor’s Note

Rachel Leket-Mor — 2024-12-29

The End of a Library: The Wartime Fate of the Library of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums Library Collections

Bettina Farack — 2024-12-29

This article examines the wartime fate of the book collection from the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies), one of the most significant Jewish libraries in pre-war Europe. Confiscated by the Nazis and absorbed into the holdings of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office) for antisemitic research, little was known about its fate after the war, leading many to assume it was lost for good. The article uncovers previously unknown aspects of the collection’s history, highlighting how it was appropriated, cataloged, and exploited by the Nazis as well as how remnants were discovered after the war. By focusing on this specific case, the article sheds light on the broader patterns of Nazi book plundering during World War II.

The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project: A Case Study

Stefanie Halpern — 2024-12-29

In January 2022, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research completed the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project, a major international initiative to virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar collection held by YIVO in New York and three Lithuanian institutions: the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. This project, which took seven years to complete and had a budget of nearly 7 million dollars, was the largest and most comprehensive digitization initiative YIVO had ever embarked on. This article chronicles the initiation, planning, and implementation of this major undertaking. It focuses on the success, setbacks, and lessons learned by the project team and how the procedures and workflows develop throughout the project now form the framework of YIVO’s subsequent digitization efforts.

Bibliyoṭeḳn: Yiddish Popular Book Series, 1890–1939

Nathan Cohen — 2024-12-29

The article provides a general overview of a new phenomenon in the Yiddish book market at the end of the 19^th century and developed in various directions until the outbreak of World War II. It was numerous initiatives and motivations to publish popular, yet instructive, Yiddish book series, better known as Bibliotekn (libraries) devoted to belle lettres, sciences, political ideologies, and literature for children. From the geographical point of view the article will concentrate in Eastern Europe (i.e. the Pale of Settlement, Congress Poland and the second Polish Republic). The overview will be mainly thematic with a general chronological order.

Authority Work as Memorial to the Victims of October 7th and the Iron Swords war at the National Library of Israel

Ahava Cohen — 2024-12-29

On the 7th of October 2023, Hamas terrorists staged the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Within days, the National Library of Israel (NLI), acting as an international memory institution of the Jewish people, began collecting materials associated with the attack and the ensuing war for a memorial project named Bearing Witness. This essay describes the work done by a small group of catalogers to create authority files for the fallen, working under pressure of deadlines, public scrutiny, and life in a war zone.

Publishing the Holocaust: An Inside View from the Editorial Trenches

Ellen Frankel — 2024-12-29

Over the course of an 18-year tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of The Jewish Publication Society, the author encountered numerous ethical dilemmas relating to publishing Holocaust manuscripts. These dilemmas concerned a book's provenance, authorship, distribution of royalties, authenticity, and appropriateness. In the article, the author presents several case studies of various Holocaust manuscripts and their disposition, describing the processes of vetting and debate pertaining to each problematic acquisition.

On Publishing Holocaust Memoirs: An Interview with Liesbeth Heenk, Founder of Amsterdam Publishers

Liesbeth Heenk — 2024-12-29

An interview with Liesbeth Heenk, founder of Amsterdam Publishers (2012), who is a major publisher of Holocaust memoirs written by second- and third-generation survivors.

The Freimann Square in Frankfurt am Main: Honoring Therese and Aron Freimann

Rachel Heuberger — 2024-12-29

This essay describes the lifelong achievements of Therese and Aron Freimann and the naming of the public square adjacent to the Frankfurt University Library after the couple. Therese Freimann (1882–1965) was a social activist whose initiatives benefited the residents of Frankfurt am Main and later New York City. Aron Freimann (1871–1948) was a renowned Wissenschaft des Judentums scholar and bibliographer whose work enabled and advanced the development of modern Jewish studies. His 1932 Judaica Catalogue of the Frankfurt Library collection played a key role in the survival of the collection during the Nazi era.

Jewish Immigrant Booksellers from Germany and Central Europe in Palestine, 1933–1939

Zvi Barsky — 2024-12-29

This essay is an abridged, translated version of Zvi Barsky's 2019 Hebrew book, Making a Mark: Booksellers in Palestine, 1870–1948. The study is based on the author's collection of rare booksellers’ labels, his thorough scan of period newspapers, and interviews with dozens of people.

Book Review: Julia Schneidawind, Schicksale und ihre Bücher: deutsch-jüdische Privatbibliotheken zwischen Jerusalem, Tunis und Los Angeles. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2023. 308 p. with 43 illustrations. ISBN: 9783525500316

Joshua Shelly — 2024-12-29

Book Review: Rebecca J. W. Jefferson, The Cairo Genizah and the Age of Discovery in Egypt: The History and Provenance of a Jewish Archive. London: I. B. Tauris & Company Limited, 2022. xiv, 267 p. ISBN: 9781788319638

Amalia S. Levi — 2024-12-29

JS/DH: Books and Computing

Michelle Margolis — 2024-12-29

This column studies digital projects dealing with the study of the Jewish Book.

Scatter of the Literature, January 2023–December 2024

Konstanze Kunst — 2024-12-29

A list of citations of published studies related to Juaica librarianship and Jewish book history. Also availalbe on a free Zotero group, https://www.zotero.org/groups/5155481/judaica_librarianship_bibliography.

A Personal Reflection on the Life and Work of Menahem Schmelzer (1934–2022)

David Sclar — 2024-12-29

A Tribute to Dr. Marcia (Weiss) Posner (1931–2023)

Bella Hass Weinberg — 2024-12-29